The Newsroom

Television News Helicopters

The definitive thread. (February 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
WO
Worzel
It appears that Arena Aviation's website is out of date - G-INTV is now in BBC News livery. (It's just flown past my back window)


Has it been Reithed yet? Laughing Wink
Quatorzine Neko, Mouseboy33 and Rkolsen gave kudos
GE
thegeek Founding member
It appears that Arena Aviation's website is out of date - G-INTV is now in BBC News livery. (It's just flown past my back window)


Has it been Reithed yet? Laughing Wink

I couldn't quite make that out from my viewpoint Smile
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MA
mapperuo
Certainly no pooling of resources to cover the USNS Comfort arrival at New York, I think atleast 5 are hele teles?

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VA
valley
Certainly no pooling of resources to cover the USNS Comfort arrival at New York, I think atleast 5 are hele teles?


Yup, 5 I think!

N77NY - ABC
N24NY - NBC
N12NN - News 12
N11TV - WPIX
N9BQ - might be the local CBS affiliate?
WH
what
Certainly no pooling of resources to cover the USNS Comfort arrival at New York, I think atleast 5 are hele teles?


Yup, 5 I think!

N77NY - ABC
N24NY - NBC
N12NN - News 12
N11TV - WPIX
N9BQ - might be the local CBS affiliate?

N9BQ shows up on Google Images with the ABC Circle 7 logo on it.
*
It looks like it belongs/belonged to KOAT, the ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the photo is from around 2008)
Last edited by what on 30 March 2020 5:03pm
RK
Rkolsen
what posted:
Certainly no pooling of resources to cover the USNS Comfort arrival at New York, I think atleast 5 are hele teles?


Yup, 5 I think!

N77NY - ABC
N24NY - NBC
N12NN - News 12
N11TV - WPIX
N9BQ - might be the local CBS affiliate?

N9BQ shows up on Google Images with the ABC Circle 7 logo on it.
*
It looks like it belongs/belonged to KOAT, the ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the photo is from around 2008)

N9BQ is used by CBS/Fox.

News 12 Networks Helicopter was providing the CNN pool.

65 days later

EL
elmarko
Guys, nowhere else to put this and you'll know:

In America, directional Yagi antennas are used for news choppers to aim the antennas together. Does the same happen here, or are the choppers pumping out an omni-directional signal? This comes about after I saw this posted on Reddit (the article and the signal processing parts are great): https://twitter.com/d0tslash/status/1266542886184779776?s=20

I was wondering if it was at all possible for me to pick up a signal from the news choppers but so many things would have to line up right, having an SDR that can do it, having the software and parameters to demodulate the signal, etc etc. That's what led to the question about whether we use omnis here, because if we don't then the chances of me picking anything up would be, in theory, very difficult, as the Rx and Tx are aiming at each other and not at me.

It was my understanding that choppers sometimes use omnis to go back down to a truck for satellite hopping, but around cities the main networks have receive points, hence the question.
VA
valley
I was wondering if it was at all possible for me to pick up a signal from the news choppers but so many things would have to line up right, having an SDR that can do it, having the software and parameters to demodulate the signal, etc etc. That's what led to the question about whether we use omnis here, because if we don't then the chances of me picking anything up would be, in theory, very difficult, as the Rx and Tx are aiming at each other and not at me.


Interesting article!

From my understanding the two frequently-used news helicopters in the UK, operated by Arena Aviation for Sky News and BBC News (normally pooled), use Vislink (LMS-T?) systems with a retractable onmi-directional antenna on the skids. London-wise, I know there's an antenna on top of the Barbican which is both a downlink and a VHF radio uplink for talkback.

Outside of London, they can either do a downlink to a SNG which then feeds it back. The Sky News helicopter does sometimes downlink via a LiveU too.
MA
Markymark
I was wondering if it was at all possible for me to pick up a signal from the news choppers but so many things would have to line up right, having an SDR that can do it, having the software and parameters to demodulate the signal, etc etc. That's what led to the question about whether we use omnis here, because if we don't then the chances of me picking anything up would be, in theory, very difficult, as the Rx and Tx are aiming at each other and not at me.


Interesting article!

From my understanding the two frequently-used news helicopters in the UK, operated by Arena Aviation for Sky News and BBC News (normally pooled), use Vislink (LMS-T?) systems with a retractable onmi-directional antenna on the skids. London-wise, I know there's an antenna on top of the Barbican which is both a downlink and a VHF radio uplink for talkback.

Outside of London, they can either do a downlink to a SNG which then feeds it back. The Sky News helicopter does sometimes downlink via a LiveU too.


I think up north in Manchester there's an rx site on top of the Sunley (or whatever it's called now) tower?
VA
valley
I think up north in Manchester there's an rx site on top of the Sunley (or whatever it's called now) tower?


Now the imaginatively named "City Tower"... useful!
SQ
SierraQuebec
I was wondering if it was at all possible for me to pick up a signal from the news choppers but so many things would have to line up right, having an SDR that can do it, having the software and parameters to demodulate the signal, etc etc. That's what led to the question about whether we use omnis here, because if we don't then the chances of me picking anything up would be, in theory, very difficult, as the Rx and Tx are aiming at each other and not at me.


Interesting article!

From my understanding the two frequently-used news helicopters in the UK, operated by Arena Aviation for Sky News and BBC News (normally pooled), use Vislink (LMS-T?) systems with a retractable onmi-directional antenna on the skids. London-wise, I know there's an antenna on top of the Barbican which is both a downlink and a VHF radio uplink for talkback.

Outside of London, they can either do a downlink to a SNG which then feeds it back. The Sky News helicopter does sometimes downlink via a LiveU too.


I think up north in Manchester there's an rx site on top of the Sunley (or whatever it's called now) tower?


Radiocam downlink from helicopter to either receivers on City Tower or the top of Quay House in Media City.

Can either be done live if within range, or via playout as it comes back in range on its way back to base.

Either recorded at Salford or fed down lines to other sites.
Markymark and valley gave kudos
CO
commseng
By and large most helicopters use omni antennas, as tracking antennas are another thing that can go wrong.
You have to be working over a long distance for it to be required, so things like the Tour de France are likely to use them.

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